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Review: Dancing Nuns, Singing Bandits at Rhinoceros Theatre’s “Sister Act”

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The setting is a quaint old church in San Francisco about to close if attendance doesn’t increase.

As Mother Superior struggles with these impending woes, in walks Detective Eddie (Jarrett Holley) with Deloris Van Cartier (Branden Noel Thomas) as if on cue. Deloris needs witness protection and where better than a church?

Resistance is the operative word here, yet the two women: Mother Superior and Deloris are stuck.

It takes a minute—read the entire show — for those unfamiliar with Whoopi Goldberg’s “Sister Act,” the film (1992) for Deloris and Mother Superior to find their union truly made in heaven.

However, in this Theatre Rhinoceros production, the book by Cheri Steinkellner, Bill Steinkellner and Douglas Carter Beane’s filled out by Alan Menken’s music, Glenn Slater’s lyrics, with Aejay Mitchell’s creative and innovative direction and choreography, and Tammy Hall’s musical direction is an opportunity to look at the themes in a new way.

What is racial and gender inclusion? How does it look on stage embodied by this awesome cast?

Theatre Rhinoceros’s production boldly explores these ideas.

Branden Noel Thomas as the talented, beautiful rambunctious diva, “Deloris” rivals Whoopi Goldberg’s original character. Thomas’s Deloris is a plus-sized sweetie who has esteem issues.

The Oakland School for the Arts alumnus crafts a coy, sometimes innocent Deloris who gradually learns to trust and love herself and choose wisely the people she calls sister or friend.

Thomas’s Deloris hits notes only NASA space craft have touched prior to this show.

Swinging and shaking all the spots that make quiet money fall from hands into collection plates, it is not surprising when the Pope asks for an audience with this choir that is making headlines in national and local news.

She’s hiding out, right? Hum. Not for long. Curtis Shank (portrayed by a wonderful Crystal Liu) finds his lover and sends his boys into the church to get her. J

oey (Joyce Domanico-Huh), Erney (Paul Loper), T.J.’s (John Charles Quimpo) performance of “Lady in the Long Black Dress” is a show stopper, as is Curtis’s “When I Find My Baby.” My favorite song is “Take Me to Heaven” and “Spread the Love Around”—it’s all love.

From the first time Deloris sings “Heaven” for Curtis to the next time she sings it for the church, the song changes.  Deloris’s journey is juxtaposed to that of a Mother Superior (actor Kim K. Larsen) who sings of “Walls,” and confesses she “[Hasn’t] Got a Prayer.”

Apathy and disbelief shift powerfully as these two women embrace each other—Success is really in the collective “Sister Act,” the show’s thesis and also a song.

As choir director, Deloris points out to each of her sisters their gifts which were not acknowledged in a tradition where homogeneity is extolled.

Deloris’s words become her new script, her new life. Sister Act is a sweet love story that will have you discreetly wiping away tears during the encore.

I couldn’t imagine such a church in Oakland, where the Black Catholic community has a strong presence given the visionary leadership of Father Jay Matthews (Oct. 25, 1948-Mar. 30, 2019) the first African American priest to be ordained in Northern California.

Father Jay “played a key role in the emergence of the Black Catholic movement in the Diocese of Oakland.

Theatre Rhinoceros, the longest running LGBTQ theatre anywhere, has a winner on its hands with Sister Act, the Musical, which closes this weekend Sat., June 1, shows at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.at the Gateway Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco Visit www.TheRhino.org or 1-800-838-3006.

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Activism

New Oakland Moving Forward

This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.

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iStock.
iStock.

By Post Staff

Since the African American Sports and Entertainment Group purchased the City of Oakland’s share of the Alameda County Coliseum Complex, we have been documenting the positive outcomes that are starting to occur here in Oakland.

Some of the articles in the past have touched on actor Blair Underwood’s mission to breathe new energy into the social fabric of Oakland. He has joined the past efforts of Steph and Ayesha Curry, Mistah Fab, Green Day, Too Short, and the Oakland Ballers.

This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-Elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.

These visits represent a healthy exchange of ideas and plans to resuscitate Oakland’s image. All parties felt that the potential to impact Oakland is right in front of us. Most recently, on the back side of these visits, the Oakland Ballers and Blair Underwood committed to a 10-year lease agreement to support community programs and a community build-out.

So, upward and onward with the movement of New Oakland.

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Arts and Culture

BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy

When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

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Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.
Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages

Take care.

Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.

It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’

Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.

Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.

She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”

When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”

After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.

“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.

“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”

Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.

Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.

But don’t. Not quite yet.

In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.

This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.

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Activism

Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear  the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

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Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.
Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.

By Barbara Fluhrer

I met Karen Lewis on a park bench in Berkeley. She wrote her story on the spot.

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear  the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

I got married young, then ended up getting divorced, raising two boys into men. After my divorce, I had a stroke that left me blind and paralyzed. I was homeless, lost in a fog with blurred vision.

Jesus healed me! I now have two beautiful grandkids. At 61, this age and this stage, I am finally free indeed. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. I now know how to be still. I lay at his feet. I surrender and just rest. My life and every step on my path have already been ordered. So, I have learned in this life…it’s nice to be nice. No stressing,  just blessings. Pray for the best and deal with the rest.

Nobody is perfect, so forgive quickly and love easily!”

Lewis’ book “Detour to Straight Street” is available on Amazon.

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